Pandemonium erupts as Verizon kisses unlimited data plans goodbye
Thursday, July 7th, 2011 Stephani Lewis, MarketingI was at a local Verizon store last night, of course, weren’t you?
I was standing in the queue to get a smartphone with an unlimited data plan on the very last night it was available. It was about 9:15 pm Pacific Time (take note of this) and I’d paid for a new Droid.
Just as my sales rep was activating my new phone (and the same was happening with customers on both sides of me), the Verizon system abruptly cut off the unlimited data plan; and only offered the tiered (read “expensive”) plans as options.
Pandemonium. There were a couple dozen customers in the store who immediately panicked.
To Verizon’s credit, the store manager and Verizon IT immediately addressed the problem and began communicating this to customers. One particularly irate customer began yelling and verbally attacking his sales rep and the store manager. The only thing which quieted him was the store manager’s request that he leave (without a new phone!) and if needed, the police would be called. He decided to tone down at this point.
The Verizon reps tell me that over 90% of customers use under 2GB of data (the new $29.95 plan) per month. (They must not listen to music? Only check email once a week? Have no teenagers in the family?)
In the end, all customers (including Mr. Irate) left with their phones, the 2 GB data plan and the promise that their plans would be adjusted to unlimited “shortly”.
Fingers crossed!
ADDENDUM – 7/8/11 Update:
In less than 24 hours received this text message from Verizon: Free VZW Message: Your Smartphone plan has been confirmed on the $29.99 Unlimited Data Plan effective today 7/7.
Have to give them an A+ for the quick fix.
Tags: 3G network, 4G network, cost management, smartphone
